Silver Honesty

Disclaimer: Do not own FFVII or any of the prequels/sequels.

Author’s Note: Hey guys! ducks rotten fruits and vegetable thrown at her SORRY SORRY SORRY grovels Please accept my deepest apologies for simply abandoning this story for so long. I do have a good excuse, however if you guys are interested in hearing it. Long story, but eh, maybe worth it if you’re mad enough XD Please, please, please forgive me and I would like to thank you for all the review that you’ve submitted! They really brought me to it XD 3

Yuffie sat cross-legged on the uncomfortable sofa in the middle of the room. One look around the tidy place would inform an outsider that the group of, now, four was located in a small hotel towards the outskirts of Costa del Sol. The noise and lights of the carnival faded in the background, and the group was submerged into a tense silence and dimply lit surroundings.

The ninja was desperately trying to think up a lie, but her attempts weren’t rewarded. The blood rush from the adrenaline was beating relentlessly in her ear drums and her racing mind couldn’t grab hold of any thought in particular. There was nothing left to do but…tell the truth? Why was she so afraid anyway?

“And so this is my friend…” Yuffie started off lamely, waving a hand in Yazoo’s general direction. The blonde in question didn’t move to argue with the statement, yet he certainly didn’t realize the two of them were considered such. Before the young ninja could go on with her tale, which would involve enough decorative, and fake, details, Barrett interrupted with a snort.

“Boyfriend.” He corrected with a teasing smirk forming on his face. Apparently the man didn’t take the situation to be as serious as Cloud…apparently, unlike Cloud, he also didn’t know who Yazoo was. Yuffie would have definitely been very grateful for the lightheartedness, if only the actual comment didn’t make her growl in displeasure.

“Friend.” She repeated once again, in a low tone, glaring daggers at the older man. The older man in question shrugged his shoulder in an indifferent gesture, but didn’t stay quite.

“So what’you do to make the woman out there think otherwise?” His smirk widened to the proportions of a grin. “Hold hands when walking into town?” Yuffie would have pounced rather promptly, no one could blame her, but Cloud stopped the exchange.

“She isn’t a captive?” The blonde warrior addressed Yazoo, but the question sounded more of a statement on its own. The silver haired man inclined his head forward in the affirmative, without saying anything else. Cloud seemed to be satisfied with that answer as he turned his wondering attention back to Yuffie.

“What brought you to Costa del Sol?” The blonde prompted crossing his arms over his chest in the process. Maybe they were searching for the same thing. The ninja sighed in aggravation, but had no choice but to recount the story. She told almost everything from the point of the bodyguard nomination to their trek to Costa del Sol. The shinobi, conveniently enough, skipped the little dramas the two had along the way. Those details didn’t do anything for the story as a whole, and she’d be damned if Barrett found out about her acting like Tifa when finding out about the few lies. Yuffie still had to shudder at the thought. She actually asked Yazoo ‘how could you?’ That was just a horrible, pathetic woman moment, and she’d rather never think about it again.

“And you are here because?” She finally concluded nonchalantly, addressing her friends with a grin on her face. “Not on a date, I would hope.” That was mostly a dig at Barrett, but Cloud didn’t quite let him respond.

“We’re looking for Katami, who I can see you’ve already had brush in with.” Cloud nodded as if affirming his own statement. “Reeve has been talking about the president traveling to Wutai, with three bodyguards.” The blonde warrior looked expressively at Yazoo for a moment before frowning. “It seems that we almost have a second repeat of ShinRa on our hands.” Yuffie understood that already, but tried to slow her brain in processing that information.

“What would be the point of intercepting him?” Yazoo asked in his usual monotone, and Yuffie almost jumped at the foreign sound of his voice.

“No point as far as I’m concerned.” Barrett responded gruffly. He didn’t like being bothered from his tasks in his hometown. It took time and energy to untie himself of all the responsibilities and would take even more time and energy to get back into the swing of things.

“Assassination?” Yuffie asked suddenly, eyes wide, but a small smile breaking the corners of her lips. “I can help with that, the bastard is going down the next time I see him anyway.” Cloud looked back at Yazoo with a raised eyebrow, while the other shook his head in a hopeless manner.

“I had to listen to that for a week.” Yazoo informed the blond warrior with a sigh. Yuffie stopped her rant on the bloody murder that would happen next time there would be a meeting between herself and the Katami character.

“Bastard.” She grounded out, glaring at Yazoo. The gunslinger chose not to comment, and acted to be blissfully ignorant of that remark.

The group soon after dispersed, deciding on a trip to Wutai the following morning. They were all trying to achieve the same thing after all. What would be the point of working in duos when there was a more effective way to accomplish the goal?

Yazoo chose a room on the top floor, as far away form the AVALANCHERS as he possibly could. Somehow in this whole situation he needed to make sure his brothers didn’t get themselves killed. He couldn’t care less about Katami, but as sadistic as Loz and Kadaj might be, they were kin. He glared at the ceiling in agitation. Why the heck could Kadaj simply not leave this whole scheme alone? It didn’t even make any sense to go through with.

As was the custom, however, Yazoo’s lapse of self-pity (in a sense) was cut dismally short. His keen ear picked up on a sound, reverberating throughout the room that looked to be originating at the closed window. He sighed getting up, fearing what—or rather who—his brain informed him, would greet the gunslinger once the curtains were drawn away. True to his conjecture, a grinning face of none other than a hyperactive Yuffie came into view on the other side.

Yazoo couldn’t help to roll his eyes before he started drawing the curtains back together once again. That got a nice, loud accusatory squeal from the ninja and more persistent tap on the window. The gunslinger was tired and certainly not in the mood for such childish display, so he waved the girl off and continued on his merry way back to bed. His trek, however, halted abruptly as he heard the lock on the door start twisting open. Someone had the keys to his room, the silver-haired man realized with a start. Not quite thinking, his reflexes took over as he bolted for the window, unlatching it and grabbing Yuffie waist while jumping down towards the ground.

The ninja yelped in surprise at first, but her attention was quickly snatched away from her position when she heard a barrage of bullets breaking from the more intricate to the larger objects within Yazoo’s room. The gunslinger in question landed on the ground with incredible ease, and let go of his hold on Yuffie. Needless to say, that sent the ninja falling to the ground.

“You are the sadist, not me!” She accused, her one track mind letting her forget about the assassination attempt on her ‘friend’.

“We need out.” Yazoo ignored the outraged remark, snapping Yuffie back to attention as she lifted her head to examine the window above.

“Yeah, I think even I realized as much.” The girl shot back sarcastically.

“Will you be getting your friends?” The gunslinger inquired of the teenager on the ground. “There is no reason for us to go anywhere else but Wutai.” Yuffie jumped up onto her feet and brushed the dirt of her hands and but.

“Nah, they can take care of themselves.” Yuffie nodded in agreement with herself and headed for the gates. The silver-haired man quickly checked his belts, seeing that the Velvet Nightmare, thankfully was still hanging off of it, before following the teenager.

“May I inquire something?” He asked quietly as the duo was closing in on the carnival square. The ninja perked up and jumped backwards to fall in step with him.

“Just for starting a conversation all by yourself, you can!” She patted Yazoo on the back with a mock proud look settling over her features. Needless to say, the hand was shrugged off none too gently.

“Why were you outside my room window?” Yuffie shrugged nonchalantly in response.

“No reason really.” Yazoo rolled his eyes heavenwards at the lame explanation.

“Ah, madly in love with me then.” He shot back in monotone, remembering the ninja’s earlier taunts and using them against her. The shinobi growled under her breath, remembering herself say that before.

“You can’t use my own words again me.” She protested, puffing up in an authoritative manner. “It’s against the valiant rule of teasing.” Yazoo could do nothing but shake his head at that.

“Trying to get around the issue?” The gunslinger quickly realized that getting her annoyed was amusing to say the least as Yuffie shot him a glare and determinedly walked off in front of him, effectively starting to lead the way.

The two lone figures made it to the carnival square and were fast approaching the gates, still in the same formation: Yazoo in the back with an uncharacteristically evil smirk, and Yuffie huffily stomping in front. Their path would not have been interrupted if only Yuffie’s scanning eyes didn’t land on the woman who the young ninja remembered all too well. That was the one with the brochures and the one who ultimately caused the young ninja enough embarrassment to last lifetime.

“YOU.” Yuffie clipped phrase ricocheted vehemently off the closest building as she turned the straight path and went straight for the blonde in the middle of the square. Yazoo, fortunately enough, was able to grab onto the enraged ninja before any homicidal attempts would be made and hefting her over his shoulder walked out the gates.

“Tsk.” He told her quietly, trying to mask the amusement as she started to thrash about and yell as many insults in his direction as her brain could come up with in this less than comfortable position.

Author’s Note: Thank you so much for reading and I would like to apologize just one more like for this delayed next chapter. Hopefully that will not happen again XD